own it in my funds. >> that's it for the cost of freedom block. thanks for being here. i'll see you on fox business week days. have a good weekend. hill low, i'm uma pemmaraju. the conflict intensifies as israel and gaza militants launch hundreds of rockets at one another as concerns grow at this hour that they're closing in on an all-out war a. short time ago, the israeli military said its iron dome defense system shot down another incoming rocket bound for tel aviv. joining us now, leeland vittert on the border with the very latest on the growing crisis. >> right now we are waiting to see if the tanks will cross the black abyss that is behind me into gaza where we have watched the rockets fly out of all night as i speak. you can hear the buzzing sound of israeli drones and f-16s as they head in on their bombing

sorties trying to search out the rocket crews and hit them with a missile before they can send things raining down on nearly a million israeli civilians in the line of fire. through the afternoon, gaza militants launched countless rocket volleys, firing one toward tel aviv where air raid sirens sent beach goers running for cover. the iron dome system intercepted it before it could hit the city. but it doesn't always work that way. this home video captured a rocket hitting an apartment building. taking refuge in a bomb shelter saved those eating lunch here from certain death. the ground forces are just waiting for the go order. those are the d-9 bulldozers that will lead the assault over the hill into gaza, then you have the tanks and armored personnel carriers that will follow in just on the other side of this berm is the gaza strip. in this protected area, they're

using the time to zero in their cannons with this target so when the tanks fire into gaza, they can hit it with pinpoint accuracy. we were at this position 24 hours ago. there is significantly more activity. they've had fewer trucks brought in and ammunition trucks brought in to supply the troops that are just waiting for the go order. right now there is a meeting underway in cairo between arab leaders, hamas, and islamic jihad. they're trying to pressure hamas and islamic jihad to stop the rocket fire sometime in the next 24 or 36 hours, which is the time we're hearing for the ground offensive to start. back to you. >> very tense situation. thank you so much for that update. as the armed conflict between israel and gaza militants intensifies, concerns over an israeli ground offensive are mounting. joining us now live from tel aviv is deputy knesset speaker. we've slight technical delay, so there is going to be a little

delay in our conversation, so we apologize for that ahead of time. welcome. great to have you on the program today. for three days now, gaza militants fired rockets at tel aviv. you have 75,000 israeli reservists now on alert. is israel at the brink of war? >> the provision is very clear, we are determined to bring peace and tranquility to israel. more than a million people are under attack today. missiles have been trying into tel aviv right here behind me, 15 minutes ago, we had a missile coming over into jerusalem. we are determined, we are using the air force, but if we need to do it, we will use a ground forces to insure the well-being of the israelis. >> do you think the final outcome is that you are going to have to be engaged in a ground war? >> i think in the next two days we will have to take a decision. if we will see the hamas coming

and begging for tranquility, for cease fire action then we will consider it. but if it will continue with the sending the rockets all over under civilian population, we will not hesitate. we will do whatever is necessary to bring peace to our people and the hamas, they are using children. they are hiding behind children and sending the missiles into the civilian population. it is a war that we are familiar with and we know how to deal with them. >> tell us what it's been like for people and the residents in the tel aviv area who are living with the constant fear of rocket fire over the last 24 hours. >> i did not -- it is not easy. i am a father for three young children and you have to explain to them why they have to go into the shelter, why we have to wait there. hearing the siren in the middle of the night, to the not pleasant. but we are willing to do it. the civilian population saying to the army and to the government, we are willing to sacrifice. we are willing to be in the

shelter for weeks if we need to. but do whatever we need to do to clean up with the hamas. by the way, the hamas is the same organization that condemned the u.s. for killing osama bin laden. so with those people, there is only one language you can use and that's strength and force. that is exactly what we are doing today. >> let me ask you, what's your reaction to egypt's prime minister's role in this very difficult stand-off knowing that the muslim brotherhood dominates the egyptian government right now? >> i think the egyptian must decide, must take a stand. in one hand, they come to you, to the u.s. and to europe and ask for a lot of money. on the other hand, they endorse the hamas. only yesterday prime minister of egypt came to gaza. he did not condemn the attacks on the israeli civilian population. they think egypt must take a hold here and to tell the hamas, if you want the backing of egypt, stop fighting. stop shooting missiles into israel much it is very clear. we do not know what the hamas

wants. we have no sentiment in gaza today. no occupation, no blame game. why they are doing it? it is pure hatred against jews who live in israel and we are expect egypt to take a different role. >> i've been following prime minister netanyahu's messages on twitter over the past 24 hours. and he's been writing that the terrorists are committing what he calls double war crimes. they fire at three civilians and they hide behind the palestinian civilians. if israel does move forward with this ground offensive, how difficult will it be to fight this battle, in your opinion? >> it will be very difficult. we saw it four years ago when we entered the gaza strip and you know the hamas are cowards. they are chicken. hear hiding behind schools. there are kindergartens and hospitals and sending missiles from both places because they know we can not attack those places. but if we have to do it, we will go in with our infantry, with our tanks and we'll clean up the hamas regime. it will not be easy.

but we are willing to do it if necessary. >> we wish you all the best. thank you for joining us today. i know it's a very difficult situation for all you. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. back in this country, we have a fox news alert. electricity ron barber has won a full term representing arizona's second district. minutes ago, the associated press calling the race for barber. the former aide of gabrielle giffords. he was in a tight race with the republican. but today he had a 1400 vote margin over mcsally. question right now, is former c.i.a. director david petraeus changing his story about what happened at the u.s. consulate in benghazi? some republicans are saying that in closed door hearings, petraeus said that he knew al-qaeda was behind the attack from the beginning, but his talking points were changed. now peter king is saying he wants to know by whom.

>> there will be a broader investigation, but we have to find it out. find out what the motives are, what the reasons are, how it was done and again, what prompted them to do it. because clearly the intelligence community had it right somewhere along the line, the policy makers changed it. >> we're going to have a fair and balanced debate on the petraeus testimony in our program where representatives frank wolf and adam schiff will be joining with us their thoughts on all this. the president now on his way for history making trip to asia for a stop in burma. it's the first time an american president is making a trip to that nation now known as myanmar. burma has received the support from the obama administration for its efforts to restore democracy. along with myanmar, the four-day trip will include stops in tie land, cambodia, where he will attend east asia summit. an update on that search for the missing oil rig workers

following the explosion in the gulf of mexico. the coast guard is saying it plans to broaden its search for the two men. those who survived the blast were badly burned. it's believed the fire began when a torch was used to cut an oil line. officials were saying they believe an oily sheen in the water is residual oil from the platform and not an oil leak. a new effort by the tsa aimed at reducing the long wait time to airport security checks may offer passengers some relief during the busy holiday traffic season. but now one tsa official is admitting there is a flaw in the system. now more on this story. dominic, what can you tell us? >> that's right. the tsa set up a travelers program about four years ago called precheck. what it does is it prescreens passengers so that when they go to the gate, they go through security and they get to a lower level of the most passengers do. they don't have to take their belts or coats off. they don't have to take their laptops out of their being. independent security experts found there is a flaw in the bar

code that goes on passengers' boarding passes which indicates what level of screening you actually get. and that simply on a smart phone you can now take your electronic boarding pass, upload it to a web site and change just how much screening you're going to go through. that's got people very concerned that effectively you can change your level of security screening and get on board alain with what would be a forbidden items. official says it's very worrying and terrorists could take advantage. take a listen. >> potential terrorists should not be able to determine ahead of time through a dry run if they will be successful. what you want is for every experience of the airport to be different. the current system seems to be far more way to watch lists and predictable security. that's not good. >> basically what's happening is people know when they check in up to 24 hours in advance whether they're going to get the

normal screening like most of us get when we go to the airport or whether they're going to get the lower level. whether they're signed up for precheck or not because ultimately if you can manipulate your boarding pass, you don't have to be part of the precheck in that event. you can just change the data, print off a new boarding pass and get on board that plane. the tsa in its defense is saying look, this is just one flaw. and they're actually so many other levels of security to go through. random checks, people looking out for changes in human behavior. the security screening points. but all the same, security experts are saying the tsa new when it started precheck that it could have put something like digital signatures on which meant it would have been more difficult to be able to exploit this kind of flaw. no word on how quickly they plan to change the technology behind it. now on a busy weekend like this with thanksgiving coming up, many people are boarding on planes with boarding passes that indeed could be manipulated. back to you. >> all right. thank you so much for that update. we appreciate it. and as he mentioned, the holiday

travel season is getting underway with thanksgiving just around the corner. we want to ask you, are you concerned about the potential flaw in tsa's precheck program? tweet your answers. i plan to read some those responses later in the hour. they have fought in battlefields in iraq and afghanistan and now they're using their military skills to make a big difference here at home. hundreds of veterans are joining together to help victims from hurricane sandy. many residents are reeling from devastation and now these new volunteers are hoping their efforts will help communities struggle to rebuild. anna kooiman is joining us now from rockaways, new york. >> hey there. this volunteer effort is amazing. team "rubicon" has 500 volunteers, most veterans from iraq and afghanistan in the rockaways alone today. they got started about three years ago after the haiti earthquake and it helped dozens

of disaster victims over the last three years. in place here in new york before super storm sandy even hit. i want to talk to a homeowner here. mary ann: when you say you rode out the storm, water actually came up to here, almost six feet of water. you've been living in this mess for almost three weeks now. >> yes, we have been. we've been living here. >> what does it mean to you to have these volunteers? you burst into tears as soon as you saw them. >> it's a god send because without them, i'm alone. i live alone here. without them, i would never be able to do this. i would be living with this mold that they're taking out of here and it's making me sick. it's making the animals sick. it's making everyone sick. there is nothing. i am humbled for lack of a better word for them being here. i just can't thank them enough. >> yeah. and you actually are a rescuer of animals. you have dozens here and you actually lost some of them in the storm?

>> i did. the water came up so fast and high, we lost probably i think 17 of the rescue kitties. a lot of them had adoptive homes, so we had to call the people and tell them they couldn't have them anymore because of what happened. >> you've been through so much. your daughter rode out the storm with you. and you're hearing you may not have power until christmas? >> yes. that's what they're telling us, at best, christmas. it's possible we'll have electric. gas, they were here. they punctured -- they tried to turn the gas on and tong duringed the gas line and it flooded with water. >> good luck to you and i'm so happy that the veterans are here to help. >> thank you to them. they're amazing. >> they are. back to you. >> what an emotional story. our hearts go out to her. it's unbelieve annual she won't get power back 'til christmas. >> thank you. appreciate it very much. on this issue which was central for the presidential race, i think the voters have spoken. >> the ranking democrat on the house budget committee says

president obama absolutely has a man it is date from voters to raise taxes on higher wage earners. but what if republicans don't play ball? congressman chris van hollen on whether the two sides can strike a deal. plus, who edited the word terrorism out of the c.i.a. talking points used by ambassador susan rice to explain the deadly september 11 benghazi attack? we'll talk with congressman frank wolf who is pushing for a special select committee to get some answers. and attorney general eric holder's role in the petraeus scandal is under fire. holder says it was right to keep the investigation into general david petraeus' affair secret until after the election. alberto gonzalez will be weighing in on that one. [ forsythe ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska.

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welcome back. we are continuing to monitor the developments on the stand-off at the israeli gaza border. now the white house officials are saying president obama has called turkey's prime minister to discuss how to end the fighting between israel and the palestinians in the gaza strip. just today israel's military is saying it carried out nearly 200 air strikes against gaza militants. it also says after the third straight day, its defense system

intercepted a militant rocket bound for tel aviv. we'll continue to monitor the situation and bring you more information as it unfolds. the stock market ends with gains friday for the first time in four days. rally comes amid optimism that president obama and congressional leaders can and will reach a deal on the budget deficit to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. earlier i spoke with maryland congressman, the ranking democrat on the house budget committee about how confident he is a teal can be reached by the end of the year and whether he thinks the president received a mandate from voters to raise taxes on the wealthy. >> i'm confident that there is the desire and will to get it done. as always, the devil is in the details and there is a lot of work to do. but we have a constructive spirit and so i'm hoping that will get us through. but again, there are lots of tough negotiations ahead. >> why don't you feel that

closing loopholes is enough to make a difference similar to what the simpson bowles plan called for? >> the simpson bowles plan has two revenue components. one is they assume in their baseline, in their starting point, that you will get the same amount of revenue you would achieve if you allowed the top rate to go back to clinton era levels, a little over 39%. on top of that, they generate about a trillion dollars through tax reform. so what we've said is if you want to hit the deficit reduction targets of simpson bowles, you need to be able to get the amount of revenue that's assumed in their deficit numbers. and that is much closer to the president's proposal of 1.6 trillion. in fact, the president's $1.6 trillion revenue is less than the total amount of revenue that simpson bowles assumes as part of their package. and the president achieves that through a combination of having the rate go up, but also through a tax reform proposal.

his proposal, the president's, would limit the value of deductions for high income earners to 28%. >> let's talk about the tax hike that may be in play at this point. do you think that president obama received a mandate from the public regarding his view on taxing the wealthy? >> i think that's clear, both in the election results, but also the post-election polls, the exit polls because this was not a side issue in the debate. this was a central part of the conversation that we had. the president was clear all along that we need to take a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, meaning we have to make some tough cuts and we did a trillion dollars in cuts already. but you also needed to have revenue, ask higher income individuals to pay a little bit more because if you don't, it means you sock it to everybody else much harder. it means seniors on medicare pay more. it means less money to invest in our kids' education. so the president clearly called for a balanced approach and he clearly said we should go back to clinton era rates.

and in all the public polling as people came out of the voting booths, it was clear that a majority support that position because it is a balanced approach. it asks everybody to share responsibility in our deficit reduction effort through both cuts, but also revenue. >> but republicans in the house feel they also have a mandate because they still control the house, for example. they believe the voters supported their initiatives as well. >> well, look, on this issue which was central to the presidential race, i think the voters have spoken. in the house, electricities actually picked up seven seats. obviously we didn't take a majority, but on balance democrats won more house seats than republicans this time around. the same is true in the united states senate. so look, everybody is going to have to come together. this is more than finding common ground. clearly from the elections, there is not a whole lot of common ground. what this requires is compromise.

it requires give and take on both sides. but when it comes to revenue, again, the exit polls were very clear that the american people think we should take a balanced approach, which as you know is the approach that simpson bowles and other bipartisan groups have done. so what we say is let's look at the models, the frameworks that have been developed by bipartisan groups and let's take their approach of mixing cuts and revenue. >> what's also very clear is that the public is very frustrated right now. many people feel that this effort could have been dealt with about three years ago. here we are again, up against the clock, the 11th hour trying to hammer out a deal. folks are concerned that perhaps the watered down deal is going to be what is going to happen in the end to all this once both sides agree to some kind of compromise. >> first, i certainly share the voters' frustration about the lack of progress on these issues to date. that's why they were a central part of the presidential campaign, because they had not

been resolved prior. that's why we had a big debate. we also had an election. i certainly believe that we should have a transparent conversation about the directions that we take on this. the president has laid out his revenue plan very clearly. there is no secret. it's in his budget. the congress has a copy of it. i do think it would be helpful if speaker boehner would spell out his approach to revenue. he has said some positive things, but we have not seen any substance to his proposals and his remarks. so i think that would be helpful to get that out in the public as we move forward. >> what about the fact that people like jeff sessions who is a ranking member on the budget committee is asking that efforts be made to have these negotiations open to the american public so they can see what's going on? >> as i said, i think the ideas that are all exchanged as part of this process should be open to the public and the president was very clear as to what his revenue proposal is. it's on the super net. you can actually go see it.

speaker boehner has said he's open to raising revenue. he has not told us or the american public exactly how he would do it. so i do think it would be useful if he would spell it out, then we would have two clear proposals on the table to compare. >> well, it's going to be a long negotiation, it seems, tough negotiation to work things through. but i know a lot of people are hopeful that a deal comes through before the amendment of the year, sir. >> yes, indeed. again, the model, the framework should be the kind of framework that bipartisan groups have come up with in the past in terms of a mix of cuts and again, we did a trillion dollars in cuts last year, but also revenue. that's the kind of balanced approach we need to take. >> allallall right. thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> friday former c.i.a. director david petraeus testified hyped closed doors on capitol hill. for some his testimony about the september 11 benghazi attack raises more questions than it

answers. we'll ask two congressmen about that in a fair and balanced debate. plus, tensions continue between militants in go. >> and israel. we'll have the very latest on the stand-off coming your way next [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix.

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we're keeping a close watch on the developments out of the middle east. israel keeping up the intense pressure on the hamas gaza strip, launching 200 air strikes. peter doocy is standing by with more and other top stories making news this hour. >> israel is widening its assault, bombing government buildings, including the prime minister's office. gaza officials say at least ten people have been killed. militants have fired hundreds of rockets back. we now know the two women at the center of the scandal that brought down david petraeus.

paula broadwell attended policy meetings at the complex, while jill kelly got a tour the weekend before the election. but neither woman ever met with the president. in egypt, a bus full of kindergarteners was torn in half when a train crashed into it. at least 49 people were killed, most small children. the speeding train hit the bus as it crossed the tracks and witnesses say the crossing barrier was not down. a missouri man is accused of plotting to open fire inside a theater during a screening of the new twilight movie. his mother tipped off police, saying she was concerned because her 20-year-old son bought weapons similar to those used in the colorado theater shooting. those are the top stories right now. back to you. >> peter. thank you very much. appreciate it. with the intense scrutiny over what happened in the benghazi attack on our consulate in libya, there are congressional leaders who believe there are still many questions. virginia congressman frank wolf

is calling for a select committee to investigate because he feels there has been a lack of accountability from the white house and that congress deserves to have better access to those who are directly tied to the benghazi tragedy. congressman wolf is joining us now. thank you for joining us, sir. >> thank you. >> why do you think the select committee can get to the bottom of the situation when other committees may not be able to? >> the purpose of the select committee is the same way with the watergate committee and the eye ran contra committee. that was resolution put in by senator kennedy. it was to gather information to see if the congress has to legislate, which they did. and also to educate the american people. secondly, you have so many agencies involved. you have the c.i.a. you have the justice department. you have the defense department. you have the secretary of state, the state department. so you need a broad-based select committee with members from each of those committees, but if one committee has some activity and it ends, what did they do? because each committee has a certain jurisdiction.

without a select committee y think the american people will ever know what went on. >> that's the big question because this issue has become so politicized on top of that, that there are those like yourself, pointing out that you may not know the answers, the real answers if it continues on this path. what frustrates you the most so far by what you've heard? >> well, i think the inconsistencies, the administration went out, if you recall, secretary rice went on and said it was because of the video. you heard the president up at the u.n. talk about the video. i think the talk of the video probably meant more people in the middle east watched the video that didn't even know the video was there. we now hear that general petraeus said they believe that the c.i.a., that this was a terrorist attack, al-qaeda. so who changed the talking points? it's hard for me to believe that attorney general holder never said anything to the chief of staff at the white house, never said anything to john brennan, who was the top advisor for the

president with regard to in the issue and john brennan was at the c.i.a. for many, many years. so there is no information that you can really gather. and i think the congress has a right to know, but more importantly, i think the american people have to know. if you don't have a select committee that has broad-based bipartisan, they'll never find out. had you not had a watergate committee, the nixon administration was lying to the american people. they were lying to the american people and if you go back and look at it and had there not been a broad based committee of bipartisan people, fred thompson was the staff director, the american people would have never known. iran-contra had you not done that. and if you recall the valerie plain issue? they had a special prosecutor they did. >> we're not looking to put people in jail. but i think the american people need to know. and not just ice -- this committee, that committee. you need people from the

judiciary, foreign relations committee, from the armed services committee and from the government operation committee and some like peter king from homeland security committee. >> what was your reaction to president obama at his news conference when he felt like republicans senators were beating up unnecessarily on susan rice? >> i think the republican senators were right in raising the question of why did soup rice go on five stations, five or six days after that -- and i don't think they were beating up on susan rice. in a way, i don't think it's all about susan rice. i think it's actually what happened. who made the memo changes, what did the white house know, when did they know it, what were they told and why did the president give a speech at the u.n. talking about the video when it was really a terrorist attack by al-qaeda and other groups like that? >> ultimately you think you'll get the committee? >> i think the american people will demand it. >> great to have you on board. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> stay with us. fair and balanced next in the second half hour of our discussion on this subject, the

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>> welcome back. fair and balanced, we are back with democratic congressman adam schiff on the benghazi tragedy and his thoughts about general david petraeus' testimony on capitol hill this week. welcome, great to have you here. let's begin with ambassador rice, why do you think it's unfair about the criticism that's been levied against her by several republicans on the hill? >> it's clear in general petraeus was quite adamant about this, the c.i.a. and the intelligence community gave us their best assessment at the time, in fact, we got those talking points the afternoon before susan rice went on television. they were flawed. they were inaccurate, but they were the best the intelligence community had and we didn't know they were flawed. so to criticize ambassador rice

for taking from the intelligence community their best work product and relay it to the public, i think that's grossly unfair. if she had departed from that, if she had speculated on her own, if she had said things different than what the intelligence community said was their best estimate, then i think she'd be subject to legitimate criticism. but how can you fault her or anyone else for relying on what the intelligence community said. >> set aside what she said for the moment. what do you say to those who said, well, the white house continued to use the video as an explanation for what happened in benghazi as opposed to the fact that we knew from testimony from others that it was terrorism from the start and that it was known within 24 hours of that attack. >> it was terrorism from the start we all recognized, once you know there are rpg's and importantars being fired at an american facility, that's terrorism. the question was more was this preplanned? what terrorists were involved? was this initially a protest

that turned into an opportunity for terrorists to attack the consulate? those questions weren't solved right away. in fact, in looking at the raw intelligence, there were many conflicting reports, some that said there were protests, some that said there weren't. there were groups claiming responsibility. others denying it. it took time for the intelligence community to get it right. i think they can be justly criticized for not having it right earlier, but i don't think there is any evidence, unless you're ready to conclude that general petraeus is not telling the truth and clapper is not telling the truth and morell is not telling the truth, all the intelligence community have told us that initially they recognized there were extremists and terrorists involved, but they thought it came from a protest, that it took them time to sort that out, that there was no political spin in this, that there was no interference between the white house and this. so unless you're willing to think they're all lying and part of some grand conspiracy, there isn't any there. now, we have a very good

commission that thomas pickerring is heading up that will determine what was the security there, what do we need to do to protect our people? what took place and how long did it take us to gain the good intelligence and why did it take so long? those are good and legitimate questions, but to jump on the u.n. ambassador for relying on what the intelligence community said was their best work product isn't right and it's not productive. >> what are your thoughts about having a select committee to investigate this further? do you support that initiative? >> i don't. for a couple of reasons. primary reason is we already have a good commission, the pickerring commission that's looking into exactly this. and they're much more likely to get a good unbiased work product that the congress can then implement its recommendations than anything that comes out of a highly polarized politicized congress right now. when you have members of the senate saying they're going to fight the u.n. ambassador's confirmation over this, when you have others saying that they're

convinced that the white house changed the talking points, when there is no evidence of that, it's pretty clear that the players who would be part of this select committee have already made up their minds and that you're going to have divisions between the two parties and you're going to have a majority report come out of that select committee and a minority report and that's going to be anything but constructive. the pickerring commission and if you look at the crowe commission and the other commissions in the past, they have produced good work products. those have been commissions outside the congress, not part of the political process and we're much likely to get a better work product from them than anything we set up in house. >> thank you for joining us. it's a pleasure. >> thank you. >> attorney general eric holder reportedly knew about the f.b.i. investigation of david petraeus months ago, but apparently never told the boss about it until the election was overment our next guest says the president should have been filled in earlier. judge alberto gonzalez will be joining us after the break. stay with us

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>> welcome back. latest on the stand-off between israel and militants in the gaza strip. the white house says it believes israel, quote, has the right to defend itself. the deputy national security advisor, ben rhodes, also saying that the israelis will make their own decisions about military tactics and operations.

meanwhile, israel's cabinet has authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists, signaling a possible ground attack within the day or so. testimony of general david petraeus is a key part in unraveling the questions behind the benghazi terrorist attacks. but what may be equally important is whether or not the current scandal general petraeus is embroiled in will impede the release of information on the benghazi terrorist attack. joining us now, former u.s. attorney general alberto gonzalez, who says it's critical for the truth to come out. thank you for joining us. great to have you here today. >> good to be with you. >> let's talk for a moment about what transpired overt last week or so. do you think that eric holder had an obligation to let president obama know that there was an investigation going on

over at the c.i.a. about general petraeus and that he should not have held this information until after the election? >> well, i'll leave it for others to decide whether or not there was an obligation, whether the obligation was a breach. from my perspective, this is something that i would have told president bush because the president is ultimately responsible for the national security of our country, for each of the agencies, including the c.i.a., for the appointment of david petraeus, and i think that he would have wanted to know that someone who is in charge of most of our nation's secrets had exercised extremely poor judgment. i think that's a bit of information that the president of the united states would want to know about the c.i.a. director. i spoke with two former white house counsels just last night about this and they both agreed that they would have companied the attorney general to notify the white house of this kind of information. >> what do you make of the testimony this week from general petraeus in those closed door sessions that are taking place

if congress? obviously we don't know all the exact details of what he told members of congress, but some of the details have been coming out. the fact that he claims that he called this a terrorist act from the beginning and someone may have edited his talking points. >> well, first of all, the lead in was talking about what's going on in israel. that's extremely important. the benghazi story is equally important, and it's important for i think the congress to understand what exactly happened here and get to the bottom of this and so the american people know what happened to these four brave memories who were killed. clearly in this kind of attack overseas, there are going to be conflicting stories in the beginning. oftentimes the initial stories are wrong. what's interesting here, though, is that everyone seems to agree yes, it was a terrorist attack and yes, we knew fairly early on that it was a terrorist attack. but for some reason, some people

refused to refer to this as a possible terrorist attack and only talked about the fact that this was a response to this video. why, for example, susan rice would have come out so definitively and said this was a response to the video and not talk about the possibility that it might also be a terrorist attack, that's something that i don't understand and i'm hopeful that congress will ask questions and get to the bottom of that question. >> it's also not clear why the white house continued to say that it was a video that was responsible for the attack on the consulate as well days after the fact, days after it was now known that the state department was monitoring the situation in real time and it was known within 24 hours that this was an act by people who were targeting the consulate. >> and i understand that there may have been a second stream of intelligence that may have pointed toward this video as a possible basis for the attacks. but to not talk about both, to

me, is surprising and i think that's a question that members of congress should get to the bottom of. >> really quickly, do you think we're going to ultimately get to the bottom of the situation? do you think there should be a select committee, for example, to ultimately prevail in this situation? >> well, i've heard your previous guest give both sides of that response. my own perspective is this is a responsibility of congress. coping hall leaders will ultimately decide what is best here. i think the american people, though, i think they're getting frustrated by virtue of the fact it's been two months and we still don't know exactly what happened here. i think these hearings are an important step forward. i think we need to see what comes out of these hearings and congress will make decisions about what's the best next steps forward to find out what happened. >> always great to have you here. thank you for joining us with your insight. we appreciate it. >> you bet. thanks for having me.

traveling over the holidays can take a real bite out of your wallet. next, a travel editor gives us some money saving tips for those who are looking to get away this holiday [ malannouncer ] it'that time of year again. time for cii price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. buy now. save later. citi price rewind. avoid bad.fats.

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>> welcome back, air fare skyrocket as it did does every holiday season, but travel experts and editor of must be tripping.com. kristin mcginnis with money saving ideas.

hi there, what can you tell us? >> well, you know, it's expensive out there. travel during the holidays is anywhere from 30 to 70% more expensive than it is at any other time of year, so, you've really got to look at values, air fares according to expedia, up about $450 round trip for the holidays, so, one thing you need to do is consider getting a credit card. credit cards are offering great signup bonuses, as long as you're spending this money you might as well be getting a good payback on it. a card called the chase sapphire, and you can earn points and have enough points maybe after this christmas to spend for travel next year. now, another thing you need to do is look for great deals at hotels, they're, very, very inexpensive during the holidays and stay at a hotel instead. >> chris. >> i know you've got lat ideas. we're up against a hard break,